Warning: egregious use of the word "playoff(s)"East Rutherford, NJ (AP)

The city that never sleeps isn't looking to get any shut-eye any time soon.

New York is partying hard this weekend after first seeing the Jets take a big win over divisional rival Buffalo Bills to reach a 10-5 record so far for the year, before watching with baited breath as the Houston Texans were defeated by the Jacksonville Jaguars. The final part of that being what allowed 10 wins to be a sure path into the playoffs.

"We couldn't be more excited," said veteran Wide Receiver Aaron Drogan. "We've been so close before and to finally make it in my 6th season feels incredible."

However, the team knows that this is only the beginning, not the end. Head Coach Mike Tomlin is a Super Bowl winning coach and is trying to get his team to set their sights on the next goal - continuing to win.

Tomlin was adamant that his team stay focused in a press conference on Monday.

"Making the playoffs is great and all but you know what's better? Winning playoff games."

Starting Quarterback Christian Ponder, who started the season as a Free Agent, has been a bit part of the team's winning record this season and has some playoff experience himself.

"When we lost Jonathan (Higgins) earlier in the year, I thought we were done," said Tomlin at another point in the press conference. "We were incredibly fortunate that a guy like Christian was just waiting for a team to give him a shot."

However, the pressure of the regular season isn't over quite yet. The Jets will face a tough final test in the Dallas Cowboys in week 17, a team that is trying hard to lock up a playoff spot of their own,.

It will be another good litmus test for the team as they haven't had to face many of the top contenders this season. In 7 games against teams currently holding winning records (including 2 against the Bills), the Jets are 4 - 3, meaning this final game could be a good indicator of hope once the playoffs start.

Not to mention, a win would guarantee a coveted divisional championship.

Training camp and preseason in New York has seen a bit more sanity this year than in recent ones. Comparatively, there are few position battles to be had. That isn’t to say that players have been taking it easy however, as this is a team that knows it needs to move up one more level to be able to make the playoffs.

Young players in particular have been a few of the standouts as far as the improvements made. Both rookies and young veteran players alike have made a number of strides.

Early conditioning saw improvement from two second year players, Cornerback Braden Prewitt and Outside Linebacker Sam Vukovic. Both players came into camp looking noticeably faster than they had in the previous season.

Training camp saw another second year player, Cornerback Midas Hamilton show he was not to be outdone by his fellow 2021 draftees and added more speed himself. Third year Offensive Guard Jon Wayne-Myers has also demonstrated his time spent in the weight room by coming in and showing off some added strength.

Some of the Jets new rookies have shown an eagerness to work hard as well. Over the course of training camp, with a GZL weight routine and diet, 15th and 17th overall picks, Guard Quenton Nelson and Defensive Tackle Malik McDowell, have already shown added strength from what they had demonstrated in pre-draft workouts.

“They’ve challenged each other during camp and it has made a big difference for both players. Not only have they gotten stronger but have learned to use that strength better as well,” said Jets Coach Mike Tomlin.
Finally, new Outside Linebacker Emery Strickland has worked on his first step, adding a bit more acceleration to his game.

Position Battles

While position battles are few this year, having three new players from the first two rounds of the draft adds in some serious competition for spots.

Left Guard

It’s a battle royale with Quentin vs Quenton for the Left Guard spot. Quenton Raney has showed well in that role since being traded to New York from Green Bay, even becoming a Pro Bowler just last season, for the first time at age 32. That said, Nelson wasn’t a first round pick for nothing and comes in about as ready as a rookie could possibly be to play, with physical attributes that at least match if not exceed those of his elder statesman.

Whoever the winner is, it is likely that the loser will provide depth all across the offensive line, as both players can fill in just about anywhere.

Defensive Tackle

Another position battle involving a newly select first round draft pick, defensive tackle may need a slightly more elegant solution. With 3 players vying for 2 spots, it is hard to say who two the best out of Malik McDowell, Louis Nix, and Datone Jones would be.

Jones and Nix originally looked to continue their partnership, with McDowell learning from both of them. However, it was another position that has forced a resolve to this battle, with the team unable to find another defensive end to man the right side. Fortunately, Jones’s flexibility allowed him to move over, leaving Nix and McDowell as the two starters.

2022 Season Predictions

Disappointment has followed the Jets franchise since the first season of the then newly-formed Green Zone League. Hopefully this will be the season that spell is finally lifted. The best way to take a look and make these predictions is by looking at each side of the ball individually and then how it all fits as a whole.

Offense

The 2022 Jets Offense could be the best this team has ever had. Starting on the offensive line, there is strength and athleticism at all 5 positions, which will bode well for a rushing game that looks ready to be a serious threat as former first overall pick, Ezekiel Elliot comes into his third year ready to break out and show that he is capable of being one of the league’s top backs.

One thing that may hold the unit of big nasties back is that there are still some unpolished blocking skills, particularly on the inside of the line with some younger players. Both tackles will also need to have better seasons than in 2021, as they both allowed too many sacks.

The man who took the brunt of those sacks, Jonathan Higgins, is once again healthy and ready to play on the back of a brand new long-term contract. He has been consistent in his last two seasons, with overall QB ratings around the 85 mark, generally good enough to be top 10.

He has proven threats at both wide receiver spots, with Anders Monk coming off of a Pro Bowl season in his third year. If this team can work out a way to get both Monk and Aaron Drogan enough of the ball, it will be a nearly unstoppable passing game.

Defense

Defensively, the Jets are a bit weaker and younger overall than last season. Cornerback play will take a slight step up as Marcus Peters and Braden Prewitt are both another year old and more experienced, as if Free Safety Todd Henry to help in coverage.

However, his counterpart at Strong Safety looks to be rookie Marcus Maye who, while a good player in his own right, just will not be able to play up to the level of the outgoing Bacarri Rambo.

Linebacker is another position that has taken a drop with former 7th round pick Sam Vukovic taking over for former 1st round pick, Anthony Barr. Vukovic definitely has the first step to match other top tier linebackers but is lacking in overall speed for coverage and is still a very raw player.

Along the defensive line, the overall unit could arguably be better than last season if not at least on par. Former defensive end Clayborn had been an underperformer and it is hoped that the perennially good Datone Jones will be able to better the production from that position. New defensive tackle Malik McDowell will have to fill Jones’s shoes on the inside but so far looks more than capable.

Overall Predictions

This is a team that expects to make the playoffs, at least as one of the two Wild Card spots. A 10 win season should see them get there and that is exactly the mark that the Jets are shooting for. If they do make it that far, it looks to be on the back of an offense that should be one of the better ones around and allow them to make a bit of noise during the season and hopefully win over some fans.

The 2021 season for the New York Jets was could be labelled about as streaky of a season as they come. At times it looked like the young team was finally ready to come together and make a run into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. This was inevitably followed up by times where it looked like they were destined for another top 10 pick. This all balanced out into, of course, into an 8-8 season and resulted in finishing 3rd in the division behind the Patriots and Bills.

The first half of the season was where the young Jets looked like they had taken their game up a notch. After week 6, the team was 5-1 and in fantastic form, including a Week 2 win over division rival Patriots to kick the win streak off. A 10 win regular season is generally a good marker for getting into the postseason and the team was already halfway there with 10 games still to play.

Week 7 saw the Jets lose by 20 to the Packers and weeks 8 and 9 followed with a loss in the rematch with the Patriots followed by a loss to the Dolphins. Just like that, 5-1 became 5-3 with a 1-2 record inside the AFC East.

With a bye to help recover, Mike Tomlin’s squad did rebound with a win over the Chargers providing hope that all was not lost.

This led to the Week 12 showdown with division rival Bills, a massive matchup for both teams. The game was hard fought throughout, with the Jets going up first and holding that lead through the first 3 quarters on an outstanding effort from Ezekiel Elliot rushing for 162 yards on 21 carries. However, the Bills were able to tie the game up in the final quarter, allowing them to score a touchdown in overtime and go on to win.

Adding to the loss, QB Jonathan Higgins would miss the next few games with an injury.

His replacement, Doug Eriksson, would go on to lead a major win against the Chicago Bears but it wasn’t enough and the Jets would go 1-3 with him leading the team before Higgins came back in Week 17 in time to play spoiler to the Bills playoff hopes as revenge for the previous loss and injury he suffered to them.

Takeaways

Overall, the season would go down as one of unmet potential. The key injury to Higgins down the stretch didn’t help, but it was unlikely that he would have been enough to get over the line.

Going into the year, the coaching staff saw the performance of 3rd year receiver Anders Monk as one of the key benchmarks to the team’s overall success. While he did have an outstanding season, even making the Pro Bowl, it was at a cost to the production of the star receiver Aaron Drogan, who finished nearly 600 yards behind his total for the previous year.

Balance will need to be restored next season for the team to perform to expectations.

2022 Offseason Recap

The 2022 offseason period for the Jets was one that has stuck to the script for the team from New York. The focus continues for a long term rebuilding of the team. However, unlike some of the past years, the front office has felt like it is closer to fruition of a sustained, talented team. This means that in many ways, the focus has been on long term retention of some of the talent acquired over the past several seasons. This was reflected in Free Agency and Trade decisions this offseason.

Free Agency

The Free Agency period started with Restricted Free Agents. A couple of these players have been vital to the team over the past few seasons since they were drafted and all of them were resigned.
This list included

Of these four players, Mustafa and Eriksson were nearly immediately renegotiated to long term deals.

Mustafa has shown well in the slot and occasionally filling in as a wideout and has improved his consistency immensely since being drafted in the 4th round in 2018.

Eriksson, on the other hand, has almost exclusively been a backup but has filled in admirably when needed. He has shown a strong arm to make the downfield throws but needs to work on his decision making as he continues to play behind Jonathan Higgins.

Higgins himself was the biggest story of the offseason for the Jets as his contract had expired after the 2021 season. There was some worry from fans that a deal may not get done, but negotiation showed itself to be a matter of details, not whether or not a deal would be done at all. In the end, Higgins actually took less money than he normally might in an effort to allow the team to keep better players around him.

This did lead to some strange answers when questioned about his seeming devotion to the team.

“I’m an imaginary character in a video game, so my expenses are actually pretty low,” Higgins has apparently said.

It seems like the Jets may want to look at his mental health in addition to the physical as he tries to avoid some of the injuries that plagued his last season.

In addition to the Higgins re-signing, Defensive End Ben Powell also renegotiated his deal into a long term contract coming off of a 14 sack season. The deal added an extra 4 years onto the previous contract and will see Powell stay with the Jets until he is 31.

On the other hand, two major stalwarts of the Jets defense have both been allowed to walk away.

Adrian Clayborn, who played Defensive End for the Jets since 2012, had started to show signs of aging. But beyond that, could not find a deal that both sides were happy with as his physical abilities started to decay.

Strong Safety Bacarri Rambo, one of the faces of the team since he had been drafted, was the other long time Jets player who was allowed to leave. However, this seemed to be under slightly different circumstances as he had been accounts of locker room discontent ever since being Franchise Tagged two seasons previous.

Trades

Rumors were everywhere in the 2022 offseason as they are every year it seems. This year, talk surrounded star receiver Aaron Drogan.

“That is ridiculous,” stated Jets Head Coach Mike Tomlin. “Aaron is far too vital to our team to ever even consider trading.”

Remarks and rumors aside, one player who was traded this season was Outside Linebacker Anthony Barr, a first round pick only a few years ago. Barr went to the Packers for pick 1.29 in a deal that left many fans scratching their heads.

However, his replacement could potentially be already found on the team in the athletic but raw 7th round pick from the 2021 draft, Sam Vukovic.

“Sam is a guy who saw some playing time last year with the injury to Curtis (Hudson)”, Tomlin said about Vukovic. “He’s a guy who may fly under the radar a bit but we think he’s ready to play.”

In addition to the Barr trade, the Jets also sent out another first rounder in Offensive Guard Hyperion Greene. This time, he was only traded for a second round pick.

These two picks were traded for pick 1.15, which eventually became Offensive Guard Quenton Nelson. While trading two former first rounders for one new pick seems like a bad strategy, the team is confident that this will be beneficial overall for the makeup of the team long term.

Draft

While not as big of a draft as some teams, the Jets picked up a few key players in the 2022 GZL draft. Two picks in the top 20 was a big help in this regard and the strategy was to take the best available players at each of the two spots.

1.15 – OG Quenton Nelson – Notre Dame

From Quentin to Quenton, the Left Guard spot will be anchored by another Quenton. Nelson is already one of the most athletic linemen in the league with fantastic speed and a great first step for a guy of his size. He has only good strength but a GZL weight program will fix that up over the next few years.

1.18 – DT Malik McDowell – Michigan State

Similar to Nelson, McDowell is an incredibly athletic lineman only this time, on the defensive side of the ball. McDowell is looking like he will even be good enough to force Datone Jones over to defensive end. While McDowell likely won’t have the disruptive ability of Jones in the backfield, he’ll be an even better run stopper and will pair with Louis Nix to form a fantastic defensive tackle duo.

2.18 – SS Marcus Maye – Florida

Maye is someone the Jets expected to be taken earlier in the second round but were fortunate to see him slide to their pick in the middle of the round. Athletically, Maye is very similar to to Jamal Adams taken at 1.19. However, it is obvious to see what made Maye slide.

At only 5’11”, he will have some trouble in coverage, particularly of some of the big Tight Ends that come barrelling up the middle of the field. This will be made up for in the physical way he plays - Maye showed in college that he plays the headhunter role as well as anyone.

Of the remaining picks in the 2022 class, only Outside Linebacker Emery Strickland is of any note. Balanced athletically, Strickland just has the size to play Defensive End and will likely be moved there either this year or next.

The previous season for the Jets was one of ups and downs. A 5-11 season, while generally a failure, was at least an improvement on the previous 3-13 season that showed a massive step down for a Jets team that had just failed to make the playoffs in 2018.

Heading into the year there were a number of question marks, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Both guards who started the year were both rookies in Jon Wayne-Myers and Hyperion Greene, and relatively unheralded. While Aaron Drogan has been one of the best, most consistent receivers since entering the league, his opposite was Anders Monk, a second year player who was seen by the team as a talent but likely too raw to be starting as soon as he was.

As the season went on, the offense was still a massive improvement over the year before. Points scored, the most obvious indicator of offense went from a pathetic 18.9 points to a more middling 23.3 points per game. So middling, in fact, that they finished 16th in in the league for the statistic.

In particular, QB Jonathan Higgins had one of his best seasons, finishing top 5 in the league for passing yards and touchdowns, and finishing 10th in passing rating. Anders Monk proved he was ready for a starting role, providing a foil to Aaron Drogan with 864 yards and receiving touchdowns despite missing a number of games to injury. First overall pick, Ezekiel Elliot, came into the league with most team GMs doubting him as the number one overall pick and those doubts seemed to be mostly justified. While he did go over 1200 yards from scrimmage, while also missing a several games, a 4.27 yard average was much less than expected for such an early pick who was seen as a can't miss type of player.

Defensively, the Jets seemed to go the other way. Allowing more points per game and more yards per game, this was particularly attributed to a much weaker pass defense than in years past. Second year players Todd Henry and Marcus Peters were always going to be in for some growing pains as Henry was the starter as long as he was healthy, while Peters went in and out of the top 2 corners as the season went on.

Unhelpful was the regression of CB Prince Amukamara, who showed he was no longer able to keep up with many of the league’s top receivers. On the positive side, Defensive End Ben Powell had a breakout season, stopped rushers for a loss 11 times on top of 10 sacks. It was easily his best campaign so far but was marred by his opposite, Adrian Clayborn, having a horrible year. Clayborn went into the season expected to put in a greater effort after only 5 tackles for loss and 3 sacks in 2019. Instead, he stayed roughly the same with 8 tackles for a loss and 0 sacks.

The best that came out of the season was the progression of a few young players and promise of things to come but in the end, it wasn’t good enough and Head Coach Mike Tomlin was put one step closer to needing to find a new job.

Offseason Recap

Free Agency

As usual for the Jets recently, free agency was a slow period and the focus was on retaining their own players. The first order of business was resigning DT Louis Nix, who waited his turn before becoming the Jets starter next to Datone Jones. While he did not put up massive numbers himself, he opened the way for Jones to have a massive year with 13 tackles for loss and 10 sacks, among the best in the league even as a defensive tackle.

Second, and just as importantly, was setting another franchise tag on SS Bacarri Rambo. This allows the team to renegotiate a new longer term deal with Rambo. However, it seems that there is a bit of a rift between him and coach Mike Tomlin and it appears negotiations will take place as the season moves on to try and see if the relationship can be repaired.

Finally, another contract was put together for center Lemarcus Sterling to retain his starting position on the offensive line. While not stellar to this point in his career, Sterling has been a very serviceable starter and will retain that role going into this year.

Cuts

The biggest cut of the offseason for the Jets was one of the stalwarts of the team, CB Prince Amukamara. While there was no desire to let him go, it was a move made purely for cap reasons as it opened several million dollars in salary room to sign rookies and free agents. The team wishes Amukamara the best as he searches for another team to sign with in the twilight of his career.

Trades

After finishing the season with the 5th worst record, the Jets had – funny enough – the 5th pick in the draft. Unfortunately, with so many top picks in the recent drafts, salary has become very top heavy on the roster and the front office decided to trade down and fill a need at the same time by picking up former first round offensive tackle, TJ Clemmings along with pick 1.25 from the Bears.

Being the lazy office they are, the team knew that they would still sleep through that pick and then continued the wheeling and dealing to trade it on for two second round picks, that they would just manage to wake up in time for!

Draft

2.5 – CB Braden Prewitt – With their first selection in the 2021 draft from pick 5 in the second round, the Jets picked up a CB who they felt would have had a first round grade in most other drafts with Braden Prewitt. Prewitt has good, though not great, size at 6’0” and is exceptionally fast. By the time he puts on some of the natural speed that comes with GZL training in the first few seasons, he will be able to keep up with almost any receiver in the league.
On the negative side, he is a little weak and has potential to be pushed around by a good run blocking receiving but his coverage skill should more than make up for that.

2.8 – TE Hunter Henry – On the board again only 3 picks later, some of the team’s top targets were quickly being snatched up. One position that has been a need for the Jets for several years is at tight end. While they wouldn’t normally take such a position at this stage in the draft, TE Hunter Henry out of Arkansas has a combination of speed and strength matched by only a few others. He will be able to provide strong run blocking for HB Elliot while still being a force in the passing game. He is a true hybrid player for an offense who will want to mix things up.

2.31 – SS Troy Laasko – With the second to last pick in the second round, the Jets took the last safety who they felt could be a strong contributor from this draft. Laasko comes out of UCLA with few major strengths but few major weaknesses. His first step could use a bit of work but with a bit of tackling practice, he could be act as nearly another linebacker from the safety position.

3.5 – CB Midas Hamilton – An area that the Jets have been lacking in for several years, and a likely contributing factor to last season’s weak passing defense, was the lack of a tall coverage option. With their first pick of the third round, the team select 6’2” corner Midas Hamilton. While he ended up being a step slower than the team had expected, he is likely to fill in immediately at the dime position while the team works on developing him as a long term project.

7.5 - OLB Sam Vukovic - A pleasant surprise for the Jets out of the draft was 7th round selection Sam Vukovic. Vukovic has turned out to be much faster than anyone had rated him after carrying an injury for his entire senior year at Toledo. He has shown a remarkable recovery rate and with his size, could be a potential starter down the track with a bit of development with potential to have one of the best first steps of any outside linebacker in the league. His top speed is much more average and could be a hindrance in passing as is his strength but the sky's the limit for this late round gem.

After the draft and the first rounds of free agency, the team has only a few holes to fill at backup positions on the defensive side. Look for the team to pick up one more safety and one more defensive end before the offseason is finished, along with a potential 5th receiver if they can be squeezed in under the cap.

Overall, this offseason has not been a flashy one despite the Jets finishing so poorly in the last two years. There is still a desire among the front office to build through drafting and developing good players rather than making big trades. At the very least, the team has shored up a few weaker positions that have been overlooked in the past while keeping room for the young players to grow into their roles.

Training Camp

Training camp is now into full effect as the rookies and vets alike have reported in to prepare for the upcoming pre-season games. Position battles are few but fierce and players in several positions are looking to improve themselves as much as possible while they still can to either lock down a spot, or prove that they are capable in a new one.

Among those that have made the most obvious improvements stand a few young players, particularly eager to demonstrate their value to the team.

Rookie cornerbacks Braden Prewitt and Midas Hamilton both worked to improve their speed while Hamilton has also looked to get back the extra bit of acceleration that the Jets thought that had when they drafted him.

Not to be outdone, former first round pick and third year player Marcus Peters has been eager to prove he can fill the spot as a starter in the secondary that has been left behind by Prince Amukamara. He worked along with the rookies as defensive coordinator Champ Bailey has spoken again and again about the need to improve the passing defense.

As with most teams, speed is the main theme of the improvements made and the battles have been made better with 3rd year receiver Anders Monk working on his as well while he faces off against Peters and Prewitt consistently in practice. Monk will be looking to take the next step forward as a starter as he relieves some of the pressure from Aaron Drogan and tries to take the offense to the next level.

With him on the offensive side of those working to better themselves are offensive guard Jon Wayne Myers and running back Ezekiel Elliott. The two second year players have worked together in the gym to improve their strength, while Elliot also put on a bit of weight in the offseason. The combination of the two are looking to go a long way to improve the rushing attack behind Higgins and Drogan to make sure that defenses can’t cheat either way.

In position battles, backup cornerback is likely to be the most heated between Prewitt and Hamilton. Prewitt is nearly as ready to go as a rookie can be as a defensive back but he lacks the size of Hamilton. It is likely that they will split time roughly 75/25 during the year where Hamilton will fill in as needed against taller, slower receivers in the slot.

Right guard is another interesting place to keep an eye on in a 3 way battle. The likely starter is Quentin Raney, who was traded in toward the end of last year from Green Bay. Raney has the most athleticism as one of the fastest linemen in the league and decent strength to go with it. He will be competing against last years pick 1.30 Hyperion Greene and former starter Edward Jacoby who are both less athletic but stronger.

Finally, expect the defensive line battles to be frequent, even as the season goes on. Datone Jones can play any spot on the line and likely will do so as Harvey Marx is more than capable of filling in at defensive tackle when Jones moves. A 3 man line is not out of the question either with Louis Nix having the strength to hold down the defense at nose tackle.

Upcoming Season Predictions

The Jets have been the recent (and less recent as well) whipping boys of the AFC East. Two bottom 5 finishes in the row have not been a good sign after a 9-7 season before the fall. Each of the last two seasons have predicted a rise back to respectability that has failed to happen, so it seems a reasonable prediction this year is to set the sights a little lower!

As usual, the Dolphins will be a hard team to beat and, while it seems some of the other teams in the division are able to take games off of them, that glory still eludes the Jets year after year so that is likely to be 2 losses right away. A split series with each of the Bills and Patriots seems likely as that happens most years as well. So from the division games alone, the Jets are looking at a 2-4 start.

A break even from there is likely to see a few early wins against against unexpected teams before unfortunately falling to a few teams that would be expected wins.

Or, at least, that’s what past seasons would have you believe. There is no point to these without a bit of optimism!

This year the Jets should finally break the curse cast by the Dolphins and take a close away victory, though they will lose at home to the same team. They will finally take a full series over the Bills before splitting with the Patriots once again.

It’s hard to predict outside of the division, but another 9-7 season seems within the realm of possibility as some of the younger players finally hit their stride.

The biggest barometers of the team will be these young players. The three in particular will be players mentioned previously for their improvement over the offseason.

Last year, Anders Monk showed that he has the ability to be a legitimate threat at wide receiver. If he can find some more consistency and avoid injuries, he could be the first 1000 receiver not named Drogan since Louis Murphy a few seasons ago.

Ezekiel Elliott last year was not quite a bust, but proved much of the rest of the league right in claiming that he wasn’t worthy of a first overall selection after seeing only a 4.27 yards per carry. This, of course, wasn’t the worst season possible but more was expected. This year he will be running behind a more athletic offensive line than he started with last year and should see a rise in production.

Finally, cornerback Marcus Peters is going to be under massive pressure to step up in the absence of Amukamara. No longer will he have a safety net in case he needed to fall back into the nickel position and will be forced to take one of the top receivers every week. However, if he can show he was worth his first round selection, the defense will be stronger as a unit.

Trying to predict the AFC East is always a bit of a funny exercise. Each year, all 4 teams show promise and each year, all 4 teams show inconsistency. While the Dolphins have been the most likely player in each of the last several years, 2019 was a different story with the Bills and Patriots sharing the top record in the division and the Patriots just winning the division title to make the playoffs.

Of course, an even bigger surprise was likely the backwards trajectory of the New York Jets.

It's at this point where we decide put on a blindfold and throw darts at the wall to see where the order ends up.

While 2020 is unlikely to see the Jets finish as the worst team in the league again, it seems that the division has gotten just that much tougher once again this year. While the Dolphins also took a slight step back, the Bills and Pats are both contenders this year as well, leaving the Jets as likely the odd man out of the race.

The Big Question Mark

How the team throws the ball is likely to be the making or the breaking of the Jets team this year. While WR Aaron Drogan is always going to put up massive numbers, the lesser story talked about with the Ezekiel Elliot selection is the faith that the Jets put into second year wideout Anders Monk, the guy likely to take over the other starting spot.

Monk doesn't stand out in any particularly way, but is solid across the board in terms of physical attributes. In starting the final 5 games of the year in 2019, Monk alternated between showing major potential and showing nothing at all.

In 2 of the 5 games, he put up over 100 yards, with one of those games having a whopping 10 catches for 168 yards. However, in another 2 of those games he was held to just over 50 yards and against the Dolphins in Week 15 went completely without a catch.

If Higgins can get back to even his 2018 levels of production, Monk should be in for a breakout year and the team will be that much better for it.

In the slot will be another second year receiver in Fareed Mustafa. While most don't see Mustafa having the long term potential that Monk does, he could be the better receiver right now and will need to make an impact from that WR3 spot if the Jets expect to win many games this year.

Finally, the other piece to this passing puzzle will be seeing an improvement along the offensive line. With the exit of Anthony Davis, the Jets have traded experience for talent along the line and we will find out very quickly whether that trade will pay off or backfire horribly.

Long term, the moves were likely good but the growing pains could be very very difficult.

Prediction

The darts have spoken. The Jets are likely to back to 7-9 this year, with the second year of Mike Tomlin's plan coming together to move forward again.

The question is whether this will be enough to keep his job and show management that he is the guy to get the team over the hump and into the playoffs. Stay tuned!